..续本文上一页t. Such calm is one kind of sankhara and is still part of the world of conditions and conventions. Attaching to the calm of samatha means attaching to the world of conditions and conventions, you are attached to becoming and birth. That act of taking delight in the tranquility of samatha is becoming and birth. When that restless and agitated thinking disappears through the practice of samatha, the mind attaches to the resultant peace, but it”s another form of becoming. It still leads to further birth.

　　The cycle of becoming and birth arose again and, of course, the Buddha was immediately aware of it. The Buddha went on to contemplate the causes behind becoming and birth. As long as he was unable to completely comprehend the truth of this matter, he continued to use the tranquil mind as a means to penetrate deeper and deeper with his contemplation. He reflected upon all formations that arose, whether peaceful or agitated, until eventually he saw that all conditions are like a lump of red hot iron. The five khandhas are just like this. When a piece of iron is glowing red hot all over, is there any part of it you can touch without getting burnt

　　 Can there be anywhere at all which is cool

　　 If you tried touching it on the top, the sides, underneath, or anywhere, would you be able to find a single spot which was cool

　　 Obviously there wouldn”t be a cool place anywhere, because that lump of iron is red hot all over. Similarly, each of the five khandhas is as if red hot to the touch. It”s a mistake to attach to calm states of mind, or think that the calm is you or that there is a self, which is calm. If you presume that the calm is you or that there is someone who is calm, this only reinforces the idea that there”s a solid entity, a self or atta. But this sense is just conventional reality. If you attach to the thought ”I”m peaceful”, ”I”m agitated”, ”I”m good”, ”I”m bad”, ”I”m happy” or ”I”m suffering”, it means you are caught in more becoming and birth. It”s more suffering. When happiness disappears it changes to suffering. If the suffering disappears it becomes happiness. And you get caught endlessly spinning around between happiness and suffering, heaven and hell, unable to put a stop to it.

　　The Buddha observed that his mind was conditioned in this way and reflected that the causes for becoming and birth were still present and the practice was still unfinished. As a result, he deepened his contemplation of the true nature of sankharas because a cause exists, there is accordingly birth and death and these characteristics of movement back and forth in the mind. He contemplated this repeatedly to see clearly the truth about the five khandhas. All physical and all mental phenomena and everything that the mind thinks, are sankharas. The Buddha taught that once you have discerned this, you”d let them go, you”ll naturally give them up. These things should be known as they are in reality. As long as you don”t know things in accordance with the truth you have no choice but to suffer. You can”t let go of them. But once you have penetrated the truth and understand how things are, you see these things as deluding. This is what the Buddha meant when he explained that really, the mind, which has seen the truth of the way things are is empty, it is inherently unentangled with anything. It isn”t born belonging to anyone and it doesn”t die as anyone”s. It is free. It is bright and radiant, free from any involvement with external affairs and issues. The reason it gets entangled with external affairs is because it”s deluded by sankharas and the very sense of self.

　　The Buddha thus taught us to look carefully at the mind. In the beginning what was there

　　 There was really nothing there. The process of birth and becoming and these movements of mind were…

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